Recently, many companies have issued that they will increase their paid paternity leaves monetarily and they will lengthen the amount of time offered after the employee’s new child’s birth. Right now, it is not very common for father’s to go on paternity leave but a prominent figure, Mark Zuckerburg, has decided to take one. This increased the popularity of paid leave for fathers. Receiving pay checks while caring for a newborn is extremely important. Paid paternity and maternity helps get rid of the issue of employees quitting to take care of their new children. Only a few states such as, New Jersey, California, and Rhode Island require paid leave to all new parents. The funds to pay these parents come from taxes. I think this is a great idea because companies who do not have a lot of money would not have to pay new parents while they are gone. Instead, the state will. Parents should not have to quit their jobs and suffer financially when they have new children.

The author of this article, Ron Lieber, used logos by mentioning a survey that was done by the Society for Human Resource Management. In this survey, it was discovered that only 17% of the employers surveyed offer paid paternity leave. Of these companies, the ones who provide paid paternity leave are said to be already generously paying companies who have the money to do so. The author also incorporates ethos by stating the well-known companies that offer paid paternity leave. Netflix comes in first, they offer an unlimited number of weeks used for paid paternity leave during the first year that their employee’s new child is born.

Do you think that schools should randomly drug test their students? The authors of this article do not think so. They believe that random drug tests are costly and ineffective. Schools spend thousands of dollars to test all of their students, and it has been proven that they only find a few students who are using illegal drugs. The authors also argue that the standard test that is most commonly used is not able to detect all drugs. This means that overall the test is ineffective. They believe that drug testing indirectly encourages alcohol use because students who drink alcohol instead of using drugs will not get caught through the test. It does not detect alcohol or tobacco use. Random drug testing goes against the right to privacy. The authors believe that the solution of drug use should not be random tests but simply just education and prevention. Concerned parents and teachers should focus on the safety of their children rather than taking away their privacy. This makes children feel like they cannot be trusted.

The authors use logos to portray their argument. They use statistics and experiments to prove that random drug testing should be done away with. They also provide solutions to their argument rather than just overanalyzing the problem. They appeal to pathos when they mention how children feel like they are not trusted by adults these days.

Poverty is a huge problem across the world and more specifically, the United States. The author of this article, Jane Fullerton Lemons, agrees that the problem lies upon how to help the poor. She gives examples such as the debate on raising the minimum wage, providing more government assistance, and personal responsibility. Jane establishes ethos with her audience by starting out the article with a personal account from an impoverished married couple living in Philadelphia. This couple has to try to make it by on an average of 300 dollars a week. She then relates this account to the issue of poverty everywhere.

By using logos she argues that the government should aid the poor, but only to a certain extent. The government should only provide aid while those in poverty are trying to get back on their feet. Jane claims that the government should provide aid in training and educating the poor so that they do not have to live on food stamps and welfare. Educating the poor would help them obtain jobs, thus allowing the government to not have to spend so much on government assistance programs each year. She believes that most of these programs ultimately end up failing. She quotes Robert Rector, a senior researcher at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, “Promoting work and restoring marriage would be a better battle plan for eradicating poverty in America than spending more money on failed programs” (Lemons). The current programs provide money but do not help the poor to become self-sufficient.